1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a print data generating apparatus used for Variable Data Printing, a print data generating method, and a computer readable storage medium storing a print data generating program.
2. Description of Related Arts
Variable Data Printing (hereinafter referred to as “VDP”) has been widely used in recent years as it helps efficient creation of a printed document such as a direct mail that includes partially-varying contents from record to record. For example, Japanese Unexamined Publication No. 2008-171033 discloses a VDP client apparatus capable of generating print data for VDP in a print job format like PPML (Personalized Print Markup Language), FreeForm®, VPS®, VIPP®, etc.
Each of these print job formats applicable to VPD is suitable for handling some object layouts but unsuitable for handling other object layouts while object layouts differ significantly from one print job to another. The wording of being suitable for handling an object layout herein refers to being optimized for processing print data with the relevant object layout, thereby being capable of completing the print job processing within a shorter period of time than other print job formats. In general, the number of copies to be printed by a VDP system may amount to several thousands, or even to tens of thousands, and therefore its print time will be substantially prolonged if it uses an unsuitable format for handling the object layout of the VDP print data.
The present invention is intended to solve the aforementioned problems in the prior art, and one of the objectives of the present invention is to provide a print data generating apparatus, a print data generating method, and a computer readable storage medium storing a print data generating program used for generating VDP data, which are capable of avoiding the prolonged processing time due to selection of an unsuitable format for handling the object layout of the VDP data for printing.